1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an article disposition apparatus for disposing a plurality of articles at a predetermined pitch.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, ICs are subjected to various treatments such as a high temperature treatment and the like and various tests such as a durability test and the like in the manufacturing process thereof. ICs must be transferred to a board having a structure and a disposition pitch suitable for each treatment according to the size of an apparatus for carrying out a treatment and the like and whether an electric signal must be applied to the ICs or not in order to effectively manufacture the ICs. Further, when a type of ICs to be handled is different, a suitable disposition pitch of a board is necessarily changed according to the size and the like of the ICs. Thus, ICs are usually accommodated in a general-purpose IC accommodating unit, then a plurality of the ICs are taken out from the IC accommodating unit before they are subjected to each treatment and the like and disposed and accommodated in a board suitable for the treatment and the type of the ICs.
FIG. 15 shows a conventional article disposition apparatus for disposing and accommodating a plurality of ICs. The article disposition apparatus is arranged such that ICs 21 are taken out from an IC accommodation unit 4 and accommodated in the sockets 18 of a board 17. The IC accommodation unit 4 is a general-purpose device and accommodates a plurality of the ICs 21 at a first disposition pitch P1. Whereas, the board 17 is, for example, a burn-in board for a high temperature treatment, made to be suited for the size and the like of the treatment unit of a not shown high temperature treatment apparatus and has a disposition pitch P2 different from the disposition pitch P1 of the IC accommodation unit 4.
A structure of the article disposition apparatus shown in FIG. 15 will be described. A pair of linear receiving blocks 7 are disposed in parallel to each other at a predetermined interval and a transfer block 5 is disposed between the receiving blocks 7. The transfer block 5 is disposed so that it can be moved along the receiving blocks 7 by a feed motor 6 and a pair of the receiving blocks 7 are disposed so that they can be moved upward and downward by upward/downward cylinders 8 provided to the lower portions at the both ends of the receiving blocks 7. The transfer block 5 has a plurality of IC holding units 5a formed at the same pitch as the disposition pitch P2 of the sockets 18 of the board 17 in which the ICs 21 having been disposed are intended to be accommodated on the upper surface thereof.
An adsorption unit 1 for adsorbing and holding the IC 21 and movement motors 2 and 3 for moving the adsorption unit 1 in X- and Y-directions on a horizontal plan are disposed above an end of the transfer block 5 and the receiving blocks 7, whereas a multi-adsorption unit 9 is disposed above the other end thereof. The multi-adsorption unit 9 has a plurality of adsorption heads disposed at the same disposition pitch as the disposition pitch P2 of the sockets 18 of the board 17 so that the multi-adsorption unit 9 can simultaneously adsorbs and holds a plurality of the ICs 21 on the transfer block 5. Further, the multi-adsorption unit 9 can be moved upward and downward by an upward/downward cylinder 10 as well as can be moved in a horizontal direction by a feed motor 11. A positioning block 12 is disposed in the vicinity of the multi-adsorption unit 9 to position the ICs 21.
Next, operation will be described. First, the adsorption unit 1 is moved by the movement motors 2 and 3 so that one of the ICs 21 is adsorbed and held by the adsorption unit 1 from the IC accommodation unit 4 and placed on the IC holding unit 5a at an end of the transfer block 5.
Next, the feed motor 6 is driven and moves the transfer block 5 in the direction of the other end of the receiving blocks 7 by the distance equal to the disposition pitch P2 of the IC holding unit 5a. Thereafter the upward/downward cylinders 8 are driven and lift a pair of the receiving blocks 7 upward so that the IC 21 held by the transfer block 5 is held by the receiving blocks 7 and floated from the IC holding unit 5a. The feed motor 6 is driven in this state and returns the transfer block 5 to an original position and then the upward/downward cylinders 8 are driven and lower the receiving blocks 7 to an original position. With this operation, the IC 21 placed on one of the IC holding unit 5a of the transfer block 5 is moved onto the adjacent IC holding unit 5a.
A plurality of the ICs 21 accommodated in the accommodation unit 4 are successively disposed on the transfer block 5 by repeating the above operation. Then, when the ICs 21 are placed up to the IC holding unit 5a at the other end of the transfer block 5, the upward-downward cylinder 10 is driven and lowers the multi-adsorption unit 9 so that a plurality of the ICs 21 (six pieces in the example shown by FIG. 15) on the transfer block 5 are adsorbed to and held by the multi-adsorption unit 9. Thereafter, the feed motor 11 is driven and moves the multi-adsorption unit 9 just above the positioning block 12 so that a plurality of the ICs 21 held by the adsorption unit 9 are fallen into the respective corresponding positioning grooves 13 of the positioning block 12.
A plurality of the ICs 21 positioned as described above are adsorbed to and held by the adsorption unit 9 again and then simultaneously accommodated in the corresponding IC sockets 18 on the board 17 placed beside the positioning block 12. In FIG. 15, numeral 14 denotes a lid opening/closing jig for opening and closing the lids of the sockets 18 on the board 17, the jig 14 being disposed to be able to be moved in the vicinity of the board 17 by a feed motor 15 and an upward/downward cylinder 16.
As described above, in order to dispose again the ICs 21 from the accommodation unit 4 having the disposition pitch P1 onto the board 17 having the disposition pitch P2, the ICs 21 must be taken out from the accommodation unit 4 one by one and supplied to the transfer block 5 and further the transfer block 5 and the receiving blocks 7 must be moved many times to successively feed the ICs 21 to the multi-adsorption unit 9 on the transfer block 5. Consequently, a problem arises in that a time is consumed for the disposition.
Further, when a pitch is to be changed after the disposition of the ICs, the transfer block 5 and the multi-adsorption unit 9 must be changed to a transfer block and a multi-adsorption unit each having a pitch corresponding to the changed pitch. Thus, a problem also arises in that a setup changing job is time-consuming.